My Biggest Podcast Movement Lessons

I’ve been podcasting since 2007. The Black Man With A Gun website has been around since 2000. I know 999 things that don’t work. I am still at it. Podcasting still is an awesome medium for marketing even if the firearms industry doesn’t know it yet as a whole. It won’t replace terrestrial radio but has its own space. It has a long tail. I love it.

The Black Man With A Gun Show provides a connection to the people I know and would hang out with if they lived next door, around the world. We know each other. I love the people in the gun community.

So before hanging up my microphone, (which I was considering) I decided to go to the largest podcast convention for content creators, movers and shakers to better my craft. My wife still doesn’t understand that I have almost 2,000,000 downloads in a niche. Nor exactly what a podcast is but it’s OK. She’s not the only one. Podcasting itself is less than 20 years old. I went to the 2018 Podcast Movement in Philadelphia. Here are some of my biggest Podcast Movement lessons.

The event started for me with an Ignite speech. It was a chance for me to deliver a five minute talk with (20) PowerPoint slides to showcase my gift of public speaking. I’ve been speaking for 20 years and pretty comfortable on stage. Although this crowd was not part of the gun community per se, communication is still key. I realized during this conference that maybe one of the things I could do to help others is to show how to be better on stage.

The next three days were full of presentations, media exhibits and meeting people. The most important thing was the development of those new relationships, and connecting with like-minded people from around the world. I got to talk to a handful of folks that are changing the world through their content creation.

I got a chance to ask the pros what worked in their markets. What was selling and what was not.

There were probably 1800 people there or more. All of us had something in common. We had community. We had family. We have something to say.

It was an expensive week, but I think it was worth it. I’m going to spend more time making my show better for my community. Going to do more of what you like. I’m going to be more purposeful in my content. And continue to lead.